SCHAC 10 Program with Abstracts
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Conference Schedule
FRIDAY, September 26, 200812:30-2:00 pm Tour of Petit Jean Mountain Rock Art. Rendezvous at Education Barn, WRI.
1:00-2:30 Registration at the Barn
2:30-3:00 Leslie C. “Skip” Stewart-Abernathy, Arkansas Archeological Survey. The View from Petit Jean Mountain: Update on the Move to the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute.
When the Survey left Russellville in 2007 after 38 years, there were many questions to be answered, but at least we knew we were welcome at WRI. In the last year Terry Johnson, Larry Porter, and I have settled into the Teaching Barn, initiated a successful film series, started teaching certification classes. We have also carried out quite a bit of fieldwork on the Mountain and nearby, on historic sites ranging from antebellum plantation, to the extensive occupation by German Lutherans beginning in the 1880s, to the archeology of tourism.3:00-3:30 Eric Proebsting, Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. The Living Landscape: Community Life on the Antebellum Frontier of Northeast
Arkansas.
Settlers brought tremendous changes with them as they moved into Arkansas during the first half of the nineteenth century. Each day they interacted with each other and their environment, establishing agricultural communities in a truly dynamic landscape. This paper uses historical ecology to examine written and archaeological sources in order to show how these interactions took place for the community of Davidson Township. This paper will also briefly discuss preservation efforts centered on two antebellum log structures located within this community, and how their evolving role as historic places in this corner of northeast Arkansas offers an opportunity to tell the larger story of American settlement within the region.3:30- 4:00 Anna Lunn, Weaver & Associates, Guy Weaver, Weaver & Associates, Milton Moreland, Rhodes College. Archaeology at Ames Plantation: Rhodes College Field Seasons 2007-2008.
Ames Plantation, near Grand Junction, Tennessee, is a unique setting for research in both the natural and social sciences. The privately owned plantation encompasses 18,600 acres in Fayette and Hardeman counties, and more than two hundred archaeological sites have been identified within the plantation’s boundaries. For the past two summers, Rhodes College has conducted archaeological fieldwork and archival research at Ames, focusing on three early-nineteenth to early-twentieth century sites: Holcombe I (40FY446), Holcombe II (40FY281), and Holcombe III (40FY298). Faculty and staff, along with field school students, excavated shovel tests and test units within each of these sites in order to determine the extent of cultural deposits, to map the sites using GIS techniques, to compare historic maps with data generated in the field, and to address issues in plantation archaeology. This paper provides an overview of the 2007 and 2008 Rhodes College field school seasons at Ames Plantation and discusses future research designs at Ames.4:00-4:30 Mary Farmer, Arkansas Archeological Survey. Up From The Ashes: The Thibault House on Fourche Island.
When I started this project all I had was a burned out house with one chimney standing. I did not know if there were any pictures or any real information on the house. I now have pictures of the house, two pictures show outbuildings, and I have been given a lot of information on the family. My talk will be mostly about the house, 1839-1985. I know the house was still standing in 1985 but I am still trying to find out when it was deliberately burned. I will only present a small amount of information about the generations of the Thibault family that lived in the house.4:30-5:00 Lynita Langley-Ware, Faulkner County Museum (Arkansas). From Saintonge Ware to Weedeater String; Most Recent Excavations at Cadron.
Plans to construct a handicap access ramp for the reconstructed Block House at Cadron Settlement Park on the banks of the Arkansas River required archaeological mitigation. Volunteers gathered to excavate soils at this most historic, and prehistoric site, in Faulkner County. They hoped to find the footprint of the original Blockhouse, however, nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems...
5:00-5:30 Liz Davoli, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. But It’s Just Some Broken Plates and Bottles! DOTD Cultural Resources Projects, 2007-2008
Dinner on your own, at River Rock Grill or State Park Lodge8:00 pm BYOB Social, Tack Room, WRI.
SATURDAY, September 27, 2008, Education Barn, WRI
8:00-9:00am Registration, Poster Displays, Coffee
9:00–9:30am Don Higgins, Independent Scholar, Arkansas Archeological Society. Dr. Hardison and the Beginnings of Petit Jean Archeology
Initial discoveries and notices of Petit Jean Mountain's archeologically significant features were made by Dr. T. W. Hardison, a country doctor also credited as the founder of Arkansas's state park system. With the aid of other noted conservationists of the time, Hardison publicized Petit Jean's rock art as early as the 1920s and campaigned vigorously for their preservation and study.This presentation recounts Hardison's findings, collections, and early efforts to document and understand the aboriginal remains of this unique area, while at the same time laying the foundations of the Petit Jean State Park we enjoy today.
9:30-10:00 Joan Gould, Preservation Matters. Challenges to Retrieving the Early History of Current River Crossings: Travelers, Ferries, War and Destruction.
The Current River in what became northeast Arkansas and southeast Missouri has always presented a challenge to travelers – ancient and modern. Impediments to the desire to ‘get to the other side’ have been resolved in a variety of ways and at a variety of sites. Archeologists, historians, and concerned local citizens have all made attempts to retrieve the area’s significant impact on history, such as the Civil War Battle of Pitman’s Ferry. Presently this history is challenged not only by the lapse of time and the currents of the river but by man and machines. Challenges to preservation will be presented and requests for resolution welcomed.10:00-10:30 Kathleen H. Cande, Arkansas Archeological Survey. Muffins, Chimneys and Clinkers: Rediscovering Old Davidsonville, Arkansas' First County Seat Town, 1815-1830.
The results of a multi-year grant project at Old Davidsonville State Park by the Arkansas Archeological Survey are summarized, Davidsonville was the site of Arkansas' first nineteenth century county seat town, now Old Davidsonville State Park in Randolph County, Arkansas. Excavations and geophysical survey have focused on locating and determining the architectural details of the courthouse and post office (the first in Arkansas). Other finds include the remains of a tavern, including a large cellar feature, and an area where blacksmithing activities took place. More than 10,000 artifacts have been collected, including some early British
ceramics and the only scientifically excavated wampum ever found in Arkansas.
10:30-11:00 Break11:00-11:30 Larry Porter, Arkansas Archeological Survey. The Widow Logan Site: An Antebellum Farmstead in Logan County, Arkansas.
A summary of a multi-year archeological investigation at a small antebellum farmstead in the northern Ouachita Mountains region of southern Logan County, Arkansas. In addition to recording and mapping a number of surface features, a small trash filled root cellar was excavated containing a wide range of early 19th century artifacts including ceramics, gunflints, metal objects and a well preserved faunal collection.11:30-12:00 Joanne Ryan, Coastal Environments. Sweet, Replete and Not Petite: Data-Recovery Excavations at the Greenfield/Allemania Plantation Sugar House, Ibervile Parish, Louisiana.
12:00-1:30pm Lunch at Rock River Grill
1:30-2:00 Jamie C. Brandon, Arkansas Archeological Survey. A Different Kind of "Old Roman" Archeology: Recent Investigations at the Royston House (3HE236-91), Historic Washington State Park, Washington, Arkansas.
Archeological investigations at the home of General Grandison Delaney Royston, a nineteenth-century Arkansas statesman known as "the old Roman" to his early biographers, were undertaken in 2007-2008 by the Arkansas Archeological Survey at the request of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. The goals of the archeo-geophysical survey and excavation program were to investigate the original location of the supposed "Royston House addition" at the rear of the house and any other related outbuildings, such as a kitchen, in hopes that the data collected would provide enough information for the future reconstruction of the addition and other outbuildings. In total, ten one-by-two meter excavation units identified seven cultural features-including piers from the "Royston House addition," the back-yard well serving the Royston House and a trash-filled pit that could possibly belong to either a detached kitchen or a slave quarter.
2:00-230 Jack Bergstresser, Alabama Historical Commission. The Slave Quarters at Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park.
Two seasons of field work have revealed much information about the sixteen house sites that comprise the quarters for slaves who worked the three charcoal blast furnaces (ca 1859-1865) at the Civil War era Tannehill Iron Works, of central Alabama. No written documentation survives so the archaeological record is our only source of information about this important example of industrial slavery. Our investigations have revealed that both families and unmarried slaves occupied the quarters. We also have found indicators of the effects of wartime adversity on the occupants of the quarters as well as suggestions of differences in conditions at such isolated, rural industrial sites compared to city dwellers in blockade starved towns across the south.2:30-3:00 Katherine R. Cleek, Dept of Anthropology, University of Arkansas. Transportation Access and its Effects on Ceramic Diversity: Examples from Illinois, Iowa, and Arkansas.
Commodities, like ceramics, need to be transported to a community, before individuals can obtain or purchase them. Few studies explore the effects of this transportation on the archaeological record. Using sites in Springfield, Illinois, West Branch, Iowa, and Benton County, Arkansas, I look at each site’s access to available modes of transportation. Then I compare this transportation access to the degree of ceramic diversity in each site’s artifact assemblage. This paper attempts to correlate ceramic date ranges and the number of ceramic types at a site, to transportation innovation epochs, within each site and between sites, to determine if relatively greater access to transportation results in higher levels of ceramic diversity.
3:00-3:30 Break
3:30-4:00 William McAlexander, Arkansas Highways and Transportation Department. The Yanks are com'in, the Yanks are com'in (I thought): Five Sites along Lake Chicot and the Almost Total Lack of Civil War Evidence for the Battle of Ditch Bayou and the Assault on Lake Village
4:00-4:30 Doug Heffington, Middle Tennessee State University, and Steve Ward, Radnor Lake State Natural Area. The Radnor Lake Project: Coalescence of Geography, History and Archeology.
Radnor Lake State Natural Area was Tennessee’s first natural area and is located within greater Nashville Metro. The 1200 acre park is often touted as Nashville’s “Walden Pond”. However, with all this natural beauty, the long and rich cultural history has been neglected. The natural area actually represents the relic geography of intensive agriculture and industry with the L&N Railroad being an instrumental player. This paper provides information on MTSU’s “Radnor Lake Project”, a long term exercise where cultural and historical geography students have been involved in data collection in the form of oral geographies and geohistorical archeology.4:30-5:00 Liz Davoli. The Evolution of a Road: Front Street in Natchitoches.
Once upon a time, Louisiana Highway 6 in Natchitoches was part of the Camino Real de los Tejas, connecting northwestern Louisiana to Mexico. Natchitoches was France’s frontier outpost among the Caddo at the edge of Spanish territory. Front Street, in downtown Natchitoches, is a small part of Highway 6. Originally a dirt road, the surface was paved with brick in 1904 and then the street was widened in 1927. In 2008, repairs to the street began with removing the bricks, revealing archaeological features associated with Natchitoches’ Native American and colonial past as well as the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.5:00-5:30 Thurston Hahn, Coastal Environments. Roads to the Future Passed: Front Street, Natchitoches, Louisiana.
Abstract—see Davoli above.5:30-5:32 Business Meeting
6:30–8:00 Dinner at Rock River Grill
8:00 pm BYOB Social, Tack Room, WRI.
SUNDAY, September 28, 2008
10:00-12:00 Tour/Workshop. Sense of Place Exhibit, Arkansas Tech Museum, Russellville.
Led by Mary Brennan, Anthropology Dept, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and USFS. She is curator of the exhibit drawn from her historical archaeology dissertation fieldwork on community formation and landscapes of memory in the Arkansas Ozarks. Includes presentations by USFS staff Mike Walden, on georeferencing 1937 aerial photos as practical matter to aid fieldwork, and Ben Gentry on how georeferencing works with GIS.
And as a non-conference lecture but interesting bonus at the Arkansas Tech Museum:
2:00 Tom Dillard, Director, University of Arkansas Special Collections. Series of Discovery Lecture at Museum: Going Beyond the Arkansas Traveler: Some Thoughts on Arkansas Transportation History.
And thanks for support for this conference go to: the Arkansas Archeological Survey, the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, and the Arkansas Tech University Museum.
